Evaluation of Hungarian bred sweet cherry cultivars on Hungarian bred Mahaleb rootstocks

Evaluation of ten cherry rootstocks (‘Bogdany’, Cerasus mahaleb ‘Cemany’, ‘Egervar’, ‘Erdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’, ‘SM 11/4’, P. avium ‘C. 2493’, ‘GiSelA 6’, control: ‘INRA SL 64’ rootstock) combined with early ripening sweet cherry cultivars (‘Petrus℗’, ‘Vera℗’, ‘Carmen℗’) was studied in non-irrigated conditions in central Hungary. The trial was set up at the Experimental Fields of NARIC Fruit Culture Research Institute at Research Station of Erd. The aim of our study was to find suitable rootstock(s) for novel bred Hungarian sweet cherry cultivars. It can be stated after eight years of investigation that ‘Petrus℗’ is the most vigorous cultivar, followed by ‘Vera℗’ and ‘Carmen℗’. ‘GiSelA 6’ rootstock showed the lowest vigor among examined rootstocks and ‘INRA SL 64’ was the most vigorous rootstock in the trial. The trunk cross sectional area (TCSA) of ‘Petrus℗’ combinations grafted on ‘INRA SL 64’, ‘SM11/4’ and ‘Bogdany’ was significantly bigger than on ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervar’ and ‘GiSelA 6’ rootstocks. Other rootstocks such as ‘Erdi V’, ‘Korponay’, ‘Magyar’ and ‘Cemany’ indicated high to moderate high vigor for ‘Petrus℗’. The ’Vera℗’/‘GiSelA 6’ and ‘Korponay’ combination had significantly smaller TCSA compared to most of ‘Vera℗’ combinations. In the case of ‘Carmen℗’, rootstock ‘INRA SL 64’ and ‘Cemany’ showed high vigor, ‘Erdi V’, ‘C. 2493’, ‘Egervar’, ‘Korponay’ generated medium vigor and ‘GiSelA 6’ produced low vigor. ‘Petrus℗’ produced high yield and the smallest fruit size among observed cherry cultivars. ‘C.2493’ had lower cumulative yields than other rootstocks for ‘Carmen℗’ but only ‘C.2493’ had a positive effect on fruit size as more than 40% of examined fruits were larger than 28.1 mm in diameter. There were no significant differences in cumulative yields of ‘Vera℗’ between rootstocks, but larger fruit size was produced by ‘C. 2493’, ‘Erdi V’ and ‘SM 11/4’. On the basis of the value-yield index, which was calculated by actual market price per fruit size category, ‘Vera℗’ was the most valuable on ‘Egervar’, ‘INRA SL 64’, ‘and ‘Erdi V’ rootstocks.